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YC: Requests for Startups

ycombinator.com

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Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#291

Post by turnsout »

nradov wrote: post #282
turnsout wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't go big enough: they should have become a payer/insurer. If they started with their ~1M US employees and then applied the flywheel to HC insurance, they could have essentially created a single-payer system by default. Slightly scary to think about Amazon having a near monopoly on healthcare, but ask yourself whether our current reality is better or worse…

Amazon is already an insurer, and has been for years. They are self-insured for the health plans they offer to employees, and only rely on third-party payers for network management and claims administration. They could take that part in house but it's a low-margin business where they would have no particular advantage.

You mean they provide self-funded insurance, or are literally underwriting plans? It's quite common for companies to be self-funded/"self-insured," but rely on a large payer like Aetna to do all the work.

If they cut out the middleman, they could negotiate directly with providers and Pharma, lowering the "fully loaded" cost of their payroll. It would be a massive savings.

Once they did it for 1M people, the hard work would be over, and they could sell Amazon plans to the public.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#292

Post by plaidfuji »

gnicholas wrote: post #26

This list variously refers to AI, LLMs, and models. Any idea why it would use different terms where it does, and what each means?

It’s used mostly correctly in each case, and they have different meanings.

AI is a marketing catch-all that encompasses technologies of a certain level of “how did they do that” automation that are generally understood to leverage machine learning models under the hood (but not always).

LLMs are one class of ML models that operate in a text-in-text-out fashion.

“Models” are more of a statistical/mathematical term that generally mean “anything that can make a prediction” - it’s broader than just ML (eg climate models that are first-principles-based, not learned from data).

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#293

Post by gscott »

mamcx wrote: post #273
brettv2 wrote: post #51

> NEW ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SOFTWARE Very curious if anyone knows how to pull this off. There's so much value to be unlocked but it's just impossible to break through. I've personally met three very talented founders that tried and failed (one was accepted to YC as a mid-market ERP and successfully pivoted into an application tracking system) and failed very quickly. I'm guessing an important feature would be…

> Very curious if anyone knows how to pull this off. I work in this space (small/mid-size). The good news is that there are several "obvious" ways to pull this off because an ERP is the culmination of everything a company needs and does. So almost anything you can imagine on the software is part of it. The bad news, and the reason everyone wants a solution, is that is truly a big space, and then you need E.V.E.R.Y.T.…

I spent 8 years buidling and running a crm system as a solo project. (https://web.archive.org/web/20080706045541/http://officezill...). I agree without a programming language and database for users to build their own stuff in like Salesforce does any groupware/crm is doomed.

But I think of the YC requirement more like build a Zapier and make your crm all an API. Use some sort of AI or business logic for users to glue it together.

But at the end of the day you still would need to build out an internal programming language as well because it still would not be enough without it.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#294

Post by arach »

hef19898 wrote: post #271
laser wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it not entering the realm of possibility for the migration system to function not at an API layer but at the levels of pixels and OCR and RPA to click through every possible interface within the ERP to export and structure the legacy data to complete a total migration? Like humans copying over the data manually?

Because the migration has to be auditable. And the data fields between the systems / databases mapped against business processes, on both systems. If you find a solution to automate that, cudos...

would it be fair to suggest an automated migration solution (therefore less manual) might be more auditable than human driven?

You'd probably start with a human in the loop solution but mapping should be a solvable problem

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#295

Post by matkoniecz »

echelon wrote: post #234
Animats wrote: post #221

Most of those take a lot more time and money than YC usually offers. There are some opportunities in "New Defense Technology". Something like a low-cost replacement for the Javelin anti-tank missile based on off the shelf phone camera parts ought to be possible. Of course, once that's out there, every insurgent group will have some. "Explainable AI" is really important. "Stablecoin finance" is mostly how to make sure…

> Maybe the people behind the stablecoin have an explosive collar welded around their neck. If the price drops, it detonates. That might work. I hate crypto, but I love this idea. We should apply this to a lot of systems. Make stakeholders of anything accountable. 100% skin in the game.

Strongly deregulate nuclear power - on condition that CEO of company operating, designer, manufacturer CEO live with families within 15km of power plant.

(unlikely to work for several reasons, may be stupid idea but looks like something that could work in not-so-different world)

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#296

Post by kilroy123 »

shrimpx wrote: post #281

To those who think this list will help them get into YC, or lament "why didn't I get into YC when my idea was squarely on this list": The YC application is a sales pitch, and you're not selling your idea, you're primarily selling your charisma and capacity to spin vision and sell. Second, you're selling your chemistry with your cofounders and stability of your relationship. Third, you're selling your capacity to buil…

From what I've heard, you also need to build up a lot of hype about yourself.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#297

Post by arach »

riemannzeta wrote: post #62

Anybody interested in talking to a potential customer for: * Developer tools inspired by existing internal tools * LLMs for manual back office processes in legacy enterprises Feel free to message me. Having worked in-house for the last 15 years, I've seen a variety of these, have built more than a few of them myself, and am in the middle of building some new ones using LLMs right now — all within large enterprise leg…

interested - @arach in twitter or arach@tchoupani.com

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#298

Post by smashah »

scythe wrote: post #45

>New defense technology If you want to build machines that kill people, you should at least be willing to say it clearly. If it makes you uncomfortable to talk about, maybe that should tell you something. And it's not a very good excuse to argue that you didn't build a weapon, you just built something that makes it easier to use weapons. Arms races are not the way. The biggest threat to the West isn't somebody else's…

People making returns for YC are now directly funding future startups which will be used to facilitate genocides.

Sad day for YC.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#300

Post by makestuff »

turnsout wrote: post #291
nradov wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is already an insurer, and has been for years. They are self-insured for the health plans they offer to employees, and only rely on third-party payers for network management and claims administration. They could take that part in house but it's a low-margin business where they would have no particular advantage.

You mean they provide self-funded insurance, or are literally underwriting plans? It's quite common for companies to be self-funded/"self-insured," but rely on a large payer like Aetna to do all the work. If they cut out the middleman, they could negotiate directly with providers and Pharma, lowering the "fully loaded" cost of their payroll. It would be a massive savings. Once they did it for 1M people, the hard work…

They use Premea Blue cross for administration of the plan.

They created a joint venture with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway several years ago called Havaen to try and fix insurance; however, it was shut down. https://hbr.org/2021/01/why-haven-healthcare-failed

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